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Was at lights and a 58 reg Prius was in front of me puffing away due to the cold weather. Correct me if I am wrong but they I thought they used stop start and didn't use the engine at low speeds?
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Porbably maxing his heater - even Prius drivers get cold
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Aha so its clever enough to switch the engine on if if the electrical system gets a heavy load?
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Dunno about the Prius but if you put Air Con demand on the Honda IMA hybrid we had in work it wouldn't be as keen to let the engine cut out - which was a handy thing to know as it wasn't my main drive it kept catching me out.
Edited by Pugugly on 18/12/2009 at 20:26
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I could be wrong but I thought that the stop / start technology only worked once the engine was up to temp.
Hence why you may have seen it with condensation puffing out
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disgusting
im off to write a stern letter to green pieces
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What was the outdoor temperature? 3 deg or less and the computer keeps the engine ticking to keep the cat-con up to temperature. [ So Toyota told me when I enquired as to why mine kept running at low temps.]
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When I first read the topic on this one I imagined a Prius doing tyre smoking take offs from lights :-0
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I agree PU, that was my preconception.
I was chauffered arond Madrid this week in a Honda IMA, it was between -1 and +1 all day and the car never once switched to battery only. Was comfortable, spacious and seemed well built though.
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Once again Pug is correct - I have stop start on my 3 series and it will leave the engine running at stop if there is a load on the battery and it depends on what the heater is set at. If the car had only recently been started it won't stop until it can maintain the chosen temperature without the engine. It makes me jump sometimes because you can be sat at lights or in traffic and the engine will cut out. Then after a period of time without moving it will just suddenly start if it thinks it needs to increase the temperature inside etc.
I have to say though that the way it starts is very good. Before the clutch is fully depressed and the engine is ticking over nicely - it doesn't rev it just seems to go straight to tick over.
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I was chauffered arond Madrid this week in a Honda IMA it was between -1 and +1 all day and the car never once switched to battery only.
I'm fairly certain the Honda IMA doesn't have a "battery only" mode. I think it's only the Toyota hybrids that allow the car to be driven with the petrol engine switched off.
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You're right Bagpuss - We had three of these in work, one after another - they were provided by Honda as some sort of evaluation scheme - they never ran on battery power only. They were poor business propositions in their current form, performance was flat and were consequently hammered and fuel economy was no better than a diesel. The only advantage was that they were tax efficient. When I was leaving the plan was to get a one series that could be leased for the price of a Focus and had real world usable performance and fuel economy.
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I'm fairly certain the Honda IMA doesn't have a "battery only" mode.>>
You're right Bagpuss - We had three of these in work one after another >>
Aha!
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Gary, that's a slightly bogus explanation - it's one of the factors, sure, and the reason for the first minute or so of running, but after that it's mainly climate control. Turn it off or down and see.
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Pug - the Honda IMA (at least the versions I'm aware of) has an engine-driven A/C compressor, so it has to run the engine to get A/C cooling. The Prius has an electrical compressor, so it can stop the engine but keep cold air flowing while in a traffic jam. At least until the battery drains, but then it'll do a stop-start thing. 30 seconds engine on, 1 minute off, or thereabouts.
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It was steaming, obviously, not smoking.
It's just down to the climate control, rather than the needs of the car. If the human occupant has selected 21 degrees or whatever on the life support systems, the car has to generate heat. Which it does by running the engine as much as it needs to to get sufficient heater matrix temperature. To get/keep the cabin up to temperature, the engine will have to run a lot more than in warmer temperatures. In freezing temperatures, with 21 degrees on the climate control, it's unlikely to stop the engine in the first ten minutes at all.
If the driver turned hit the button on the steering wheel to turn off the auto climate control, or pressed the EV button, the engine would stop. I do that sometimes in mine if stopped for a while, and I'm warm enough.
I believe the new Prius III has an Eco mode that reduces its tendency to run the engine just for passenger comfort.
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So really the hydro bit only really works in the summer :( but even then not on a hot day!
Edited by Rattle on 19/12/2009 at 12:18
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For KMO - Maybe the Japanese spec units that we get here are different to UK spec, but with ours, if the outside temp drops to 3 deg, the engine keeps running without option [ unless you kill it with EV, but I am not that green. ] The answer that I got came from Toyota front office, by the way, not the dealer, so I am unconvinced that it was bogus.
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